Reviewed by Steven Bridge

What do you do when you are given a record to review that is aimed at boys aged between eight to12, and you're going on 49?! You find a kid aged 12 in your church youth group, speak to his mum, and ask him to review it! Step forward one Aaron Peace (although there was little peace in the house whilst this rocktastic CD was played seven times by the lad!). Fortunately Aaron likes rock, rap and pop; and Mum's okay, cool even, well cool on the rock as she thought the CD was "a bit heavy"). 2:52 is a product line (www.zonderkidz.com) designed to help boys aged eight to 12 grow in wisdom, stature, and favour with God and man (a la Luke 2:52 in the Bible). For starters, the CD made a good impression on the young man who delivered a very mature verdict on this audio output. Featuring some of the best known American artists in Christian music, '2:52' rocked, although the words in the lyric insert helped. And I thought it was just us oldies who couldn't hear all the words over crunchy guitars and pulsating beats! Like me, Aaron couldn't see the point of the opening track 'Get This Party Started' by TobyMac, but he soon got into tracks by Skillet, The Benjamin Gate, Bleach, Audio Adrenaline, Seven Day Jesus, PAX217, before the album lost its way a little with poor cuts by Code Of Ethics and Five Iron Frenzy, but concluded with a super summary of the whole CD by the 2:52 Crew. I think Aaron's got good taste and this taster for Christian rock will hopefully lead him into a deeper, stronger faith in the Rock who is Jesus. Aaron's verdict:11/10. "This is worth buying and I think it can be heard by 13 year olds too", says Aaron, who is 13 in a few weeks time! Could be an idea for a birthday present, Mum!

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